New Zealand vs Australia 2nd Test: Ben Sears set for Test debut as O'Rourke faces hamstring injury

By Ovaise Shariff | First Published Mar 4, 2024, 11:31 AM IST

New Zealand faces key changes as Ben Sears gears up for his Test debut, stepping in for the injured Will O'Rourke, sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Ben Sears is set for his Test debut against Australia in the second Test, stepping in for the injured Will O'Rourke, who suffered a hamstring injury. Meanwhile, Devon Conway's IPL start will be delayed due to thumb surgery, with the New Zealand batsman likely to miss the first half of the tournament.

SQUAD NEWS | Will O’Rourke has been ruled out of this week’s second Tegel Test against Australia in Christchurch with uncapped pace-bowler Ben Sears replacing him in the squad. https://t.co/RSjQj3UdaP

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS)

Gary Stead, the New Zealand coach, revealed that there was no consideration to recall the retired Neil Wagner, and Sears was chosen as a like-for-like replacement for O'Rourke. The coach defended the decision not to include spinner Mitchell Santner, acknowledging a misjudgment in reading the pitch. Despite recent criticism of on-field decisions, Stead emphasized a healthy relationship with captain Tim Southee, acknowledging that disagreements are a natural part of the coaching-captain dynamic.

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"We didn't get there with it," Stead said. "He had made his decision he was comfortable with it. We reconsidered a number of things but we thought in this case that the pace of Ben Sears and what he's bought to to us and international cricket so far is the difference that we needed.

"Neil had a fitting send-off last night with the team. They celebrated everything he's done, and Neil was happy with the decision of where he's got to around that as well."

"Yes, it is. Yeah, definitely," Stead said. "If we knew it was going to spin, not so much the spin but more the bounce, then Santner would have played. So yeah, we got that wrong. Put our hand up around that as well. It's not what we expected, not what we've seen from the Basin Reserve in the past either."

"[It's] good. I've got a lot of respect for Tim," Stead said. "We don't agree on all the decisions that are made but that's healthy as well.

"There's different ways of looking at that. It's easy in hindsight to look back and say, oh, you didn't get a wicket for a session, so something must be wrong. Equally, when we do take a lot of wickets you should say the same thing, geez, the bowling plans were very good. So that's the game of cricket. It can change so quickly. I thought at times in the second innings Tim was excellent. His changes were spot on. So there's always things to discuss between a coach and a captain and we always do that."

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